Event Coordinators

Fiber Arts Celebrations are coordinated by two veterans of the regional creative economy, fiber arts community, and hospitality industry. As collaborators, they bring many decades of experience in event management, media communications, and marketing.

Rose Ann Hunter has been a textile structuralist for the last 30 years. She was chosen in 2005 as craftsperson in residence at Old Sturbridge Village in traditional rug making 1790-1850, and lectures at museums, conferences, and guilds throughout New England and the United States. She has adapted and developed over 30 techniques of rug making by recycling fabrics that are sewn, knitted, or crocheted into folk art. When not traveling, she is at home base at her inn in Newburyport, MA, where she conducts retreats and special events for fiber artists.

An active member of the Essex County Needlework Guild and Greater Boston Knitting Guild, Rose Ann has taught and demonstrated at several Shaker museums, including Canterbury Shaker Village, American Independence Museum (Exeter NH); Hale Homestead (CT), the Chattaqua Institute, and Fletcher Farms School of Arts and Crafts (VT). As an entrepreneur and businesswoman, Rose Ann has been in the hospitality industry for 30+ years, and has served as a marketing consultant to innkeepers throughout the U.S.

Kate Broughton is a designer and nationally published communications and marketing professional who has staged over three dozen successful festivals, concerts, and related community gatherings. She combines several decades of media experience with extensive involvement in the fashion, design, and fiber arts world. A former senior editor at Boston Magazine and contributor to The Boston Globe, Kate worked as a stringer for Glamour magazine, received the Men’s Fashion Association “Lulu” award for excellence in fashion journalism, and served as the market research director for Brady & Paul Communications, serving clients such as Kalmbach Publishing, the New England Journal of Medicine, The American Journal of Nursing, the Christian Science Publishing Society, and The Writer magazine. Her talents have been tapped for numerous internet ventures, including Microsoft Sidewalk, and the innovative Streetmail – the pioneer of online community publishing.

Kate is the founder and publisher of PortFolio magazine (2003-2007), which she successfully transitioned to an online webzine, and the author of Textile Dyeing: The Step-by-Step Guide and Showcase, which was printed internationally and used as a textbook in surface design classes throughout the United States. As a fiber artist, she is recognized as an expert in fabric origami, contemporary piecing, and fabric manipulation techniques.